Susie Homemaker (or, how I keep my budget in check)

Over the past couple weeks, I discovered a few things:

1) I have lost 8 pounds since the beginning of January!

2) Greek yogurt CAN be made at home more cheaply than store-bought

3) Making bread isn't as scary as I thought it would be

4) Snow is beautiful and really inconvenient

5) The Pioneer Woman wants to make me fat

Let's rejoice over #1 and move right on to #2 (haha, middle school humor, #2):

Want to make yogurt??? You can!!!

I (mostly) followed directions from this website, as I'm a total yogurt newbie. 

Here's what I did:

1) Pour 2 quarts (8 cups) of milk (any kind, I used whole) into a glass bowl that can take the heat. The website suggested a Pyrex batter bowl, so I borrowed my mom-in-law's.

2) Microwave for 14 - 17 minutes (may vary depending on your microwave) to get the milk to 175 - 180 degrees. I discovered that 14 minutes and 30 seconds is perfect in my microwave. Using the microwave keeps the milk from scorching and allows you to do something else, rather than stand over the stove stirring for that time.

3) Let your heated milk sit on the counter for 45 minutes to and hour, or until it cools to somewhere between 105 - 120 degrees. I used my candy thermometer to check temps, but any accurate thermometer will work.

4) For 8 cups (2 quarts), mix in at least 2 teaspoons of starter. The best starter is 5-7 days old from a recent batch of your own yogurt. Second best is a really good store-bought plain yogurt - but make sure it has live active cultures. Whisk it in and move on to incubation!

5) This may be the hard part for some: incubation. As I found out from my first and second attempts, this step is what really makes the yogurt. The milk needs to stay at about 100 degrees for 8 - 12 hours. The first time I did this, I had it in for 6 hours - and I ended up with milk soup. Not much flavor, and liquidy.  The second time, after getting some sage advice from Facebook friends, I left it in for almost 13 hours with much better results. 

My oven has a proof setting, which keeps the oven at 100 degrees. You can search the 'net for other methods. I covered my bowl with a plate, put her in, and waited! (Impatiently, mind you.)

 Huzzah! Yogurt! You can see how excited I was!!!! The milk has now become yogurt!!!

7) Now to make the yogurt Greek: Strain out the whey. Perhaps easier said than done.

As you can see above, my first of attempt involved coffee filters, among other things. The gal from Salad-In-A-Jar suggested using a bouillon strainer, but those run between $75 - $100. No thanks. I'm too cheap for that. So I made my own version!

What you see pictured is my mother-in-law's sink collander/strainer, 4 of our Classico-pasta-sauce-jar-turned-drinking-glasses, and a large baking pan.

This set-up was intended to strain whey from the milk solids, making Greek yogurt (which just describes the thickness and consistency.

 

This did work.... sort of... but it was messy and somewhat difficult.

After scouring the internet some more, I discovered a better method: a plain t-shirt:

Using the t-shirt (cut up one side so that I only had one layer of cloth to drain through) was much quicker and easier. Once I was done, I tossed the shirt in the wash!

Also when I was done: 

BEAUTIFUL GREEK YOGURT!!! It was a bit tangy for our taste, so I'm going to try 10-11 hours next time, but it is still oh, so tasty!

Pictured above you see that my 2 quarts of whole milk yielded 5 portions for my weekday breakfasts (3/4 cup each), a small starter for the next batch, and two 3/4 cup portions for the hubs and I to sample - not to mention at least 3 cups of whey! Pretty nifty!

And, as mentioned before, I also did some baking:

I didn't have two loaf pans, so I used a cake pan. Still worked! :)

This will cover Kevin's breakfasts for a while and our bread needs for the week!
Cheaper and tastier!
 

Question: What ways do you "do it yourself" to cut back on your grocery budget??